The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It

It feels perfectly natural to use the word “we” when you talk about climate
change. “We are causing climate change.” “We are emitting more carbon dioxide
than ever.” “We need to draw emissions down to net zero in order to halt global
heating at the Paris Agreement target of well below 2° Celsius.”
Given that human beings are in fact causing climate change, the impulse to
use the word “we” makes sense. But there’s a real problem with it: the guilty
collective it invokes simply doesn’t exist. The “we” responsible for climate
change is a fictional construct, one that’s distorting and dangerous. By hiding
who’s really responsible for the crisis, the word “we” provides political cover for
the people who are happy to destroy a livable climate to gain more profit and
power.